My Ideal Morning Routine

I’m so excited to get back to talking about self improvement shit! Today I’m going to tell you about what I would do every morning if I were a perfect, unflawed person.

This practice is taken directly from Hal Elrod’s book The Miracle Morning. This book could definitely use some editing, but I have it all highlighted and underlined because his concept is so powerful. Just check out the Amazon reviews to see how many people agree with me.

The idea behind Miracle Morning is to repeat 6 things every morning to prime you to be your best self every day. This can do nothing but good things for you in general. It’s that simple.

The point is to turn these things into a habit, so you wake up each morning, brush your teeth (and pee), and then flow into the rest of your habits.

My Ideal Morning Routine

Wake up at 6:00: This is easy to do because the dog snuffles in my ear and scratches slowly down the side of my bed until I get up.

Exercise: Walk the dog for 30 minutes while listening to a podcast. When it’s nice outside, walk her for 10 minutes, then go back out and run for 25-30 minutes while listening to a podcast. (She is a good running partner for about 10 minutes, and 5 of those minutes are spent smelling everything and defecating.)

Stretch and cool down: Do about 5-10 minutes of Yoga

Meditate for 15-20 minutes, usually to a guided meditation on Insight Timer.

Write affirmations: Writing out what I want to be/have in the future, but putting it in the present tense. Read and absorb them, visualize them. Breathe deeply and let them permeate every cell in my body. So awesome.

Free-write 3 pages a la The Artist’s Way: I keep meaning to work through this book again! There’s a reason it’s been a best seller for over 25 freaking years for freak’s sake.

If you aren’t familiar with writing the 3 pages activity, you (hand) write out 3 pages of whatever comes to mind. You may come to the page with an idea you want to write out, or you can just start writing nonsense. This will happen sometimes when you think your brain is empty.

Then you’ll start writing something like, “la la la I have nothing to say. I just want to get this over with so I can go buy groceries. It’s cold in here. I’m hungry. Fuckety wuckety buckety puckety” And then the next thing you know you’re setting the page on fire writing about some brilliant idea that just popped into your head.

Reading: Sometimes I will read a highlighted passage in one of my books, but mostly listening to my podcasts is what I sub for reading here. I make sure it is something that’s going to inspire me and make me think, so usually it’s Brooke Castillo, Jess Lively or Srini Rao.

Why do This?

If you go through all of these steps each morning, you will feel like a freaking warrior. It’s massively energizing, and it’s all your doing, so you feel like you are controlling your life instead of waking up and letting life happen to you.

Sometimes I slip out of this routine and get lazy and depressed and indulge in confusion and self-pity. I’m human. Hormones happen, life happens, the weather changes and I want to hibernate. So then I try to remember to give myself some grace and get back on the horse.

Why Each Step is Powerful

Waking up early is important to me because I have my most energy in the morning, and I like being up before everyone else is. I can ease into my day without having my 9 year old telling me to watch his dinosaur toys battle to the death for 30 minutes.

Exercise – so I can maintain my Gisele Bundchen body

Yoga – eases me back into quiet after I’ve gotten all exercisey and cools me down so I’m not wiping disgusting, beautiful sweat off of me while meditating.

Meditation – I’m convinced meditation is the single most important thing anyone can do every day.

Affirmations and visualization – if you do these with intention, and don’t just rush through them, they are powerful tools to transform your emotional state, and we all know that emotions affect our actions, right? Yes. We do.

Writing – this puts all of your thoughts, dreams, fears, ideas, worries, goals, and every other thing going on in your head down on paper. Read this awesome short article on the benefits of writing by hand.

Reading – I use this morning reading/podcasting time to get inspired

Making Time for Your Miracle Morning

Now before you sit there shaking your fist at me through your computer, let me tell you that you can do all of these things quickly. You don’t need to spend the amount of time that I do on each step, nor do you have to spend the same amount of time from activity to activity.

If all you have to squeeze out of your morning is 20 extra minutes, do each thing for 3 minutes. Seriously. You’ll be surprised at how much even that can buoy you up. buououy booooooouy. byuouyuy.

Or here’s another option

5 minutes: stretch

5 minutes: Sit on your ass and follow your breath

1 minute: Write out affirmations

1 minute: Sit and visualize your ideal life

5 minutes: Write a page or two of your ideal life

3 minutes: Read and try to memorize a highlighted passage from a favorite book

That’s 20 minutes, mothereffer! You can wake up 20 minutes earlier if you know it’s going to dramatically shift your life for the better.

Talk to me. What are your thoughts about this? What is your current morning routine? What do you want your morning routine to be?

1 Comment

Cyndy R

11/07/2018 / 10:38 am

I love the condensed version of the perfect morning. Cause I totally believe that tiny things and times add up to big ones and make a difference. I, too, have been intending to re-experience The Artist’s Way! I did it like 24 years ago. I have to do my exercising in the late afternoon right after I pick up my son from school. I’ve tried morning but my body just doesn’t like it. I get on my incline treadmill for 35 minutes everyday. I used to do longer times for less days, but I switched it up because of back pain and I really love doing it everyday for less time instead. It really perks me up. Some days I’m like whiny in my mind about it, but I always do it and I’m always happier. I think the ritual of it is really good for my shifting moody brain, too. Meditation is something I’ve tried as a more formal thing, but I don’t stick to it, or haven’t been able to yet, so I do tiny meditations throughout the day while showering, doing dishes, staring out the window, driving, etc. Coming back to my breath, saying positive affirmations. Great post! 🙂